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Alien
Alien is the fourth album by Canadian extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad. It was released on March 22, 2005. The album was written by Devin Townsend and Gene Hoglan over a six month time period. The album reached No. 32 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart and No. 35 on the Top Independent Albums chart. "Love?" became the album's single and had a music video which aired on Headbanger's Ball. The video (a tribute to the movie The Evil Dead) depicts the band performing in a haunted cabin in the woods. Background Townsend and Hoglan were the primary writers of the album, since Simon and Stroud were busy with other commitments. To prepare for the recording of Alien, Townsend had stopped taking the medication prescribed to treat his bipolar disorder;S. Johnson, Alex. "Tales of extraordinary madness." Zero Tolerance magazine. December 30, 2004. Iss. 003. he explained that the final track, "Info Dump", is a reflection on the panicked state of mind that ensued when he stopped taking his medication. The making of Alien was documented and made viewable online on Century Media's official site in February 2005. It was also available as a bonus DVD of the limited first edition of the album. The band recorded a cover of Tom Jones's "What's New Pussycat?" that was scheduled to appear on Alien, but it was not recorded entirely because "it did not fit the flow" of the album. The song is not expected to be released anytime, even though Blabbermouth.net has reported so.Strapping Young Lad Confirmed For New England Metal And Hardcore Festival Due to some kind of error, the unmastered promotional release of Alien (and subsequently the early leaks of the album on the internet) contained the longer version of "Love?" and a version of "We Ride" which had most of the guitar solos missing. Also, on this promo release the track "Thalamus" was credited as being called "Landscape".Hevydevy forums - Love (extended version)Hevydevy Forums - Differences between Aliens Previous to the promotional release, press releases credited "Thalamus" as being called "Mega Bulldozer".Strapping Young Lad Finalize Track Listing For 'Alien' Track listing All songs written and composed by Devin Townsend and Gene Hoglan. ;Japanese edition ;Australian edition ;Korean edition Personnel Strapping Young Lad *Devin Townsend – guitar, vocals, keyboards, samples, production, engineering *Gene Hoglan – drums *Byron Stroud – bass, associate production *Jed Simon – guitar Additional personnel *Dave Young – keyboards, vocals *Will Campagna – live keyboards Male vocal choir Chris Valagao, Rossy Living, Cam Krotche, Will Campagna, Shane Clark, Ross Gale, Christ Stanley, Will Cochrane, Ash Manning, Ross Empson, Mike Quigley, Billy Marquardt and Jeff Cook. Female vocal choir Laurielynn Bridger, Marnie Mains, Ani Kyd, Tammy "Tamz" Theis, Magdalena Bulak, Shay Ward, Steph Reid, Deborah Rodrigo-Tyzio, Michelle Madden, and Joanna Ussner. Children vocals Dorian Glaude-Living, Damian Moore, Ethan Belcourt-Lowe and Jayden Gignac. Production *Shaun Thingvold – engineering, mixing *Kristina Ardron – 2nd engineering, editing *Ryan Van Poederooyen – drum technician *Alex Aligizakis – editing *Scott Cooke – editing *Bryan Seely – editing, assistant *Rob Stefanson – assistant *Alan Wong Moon – assistant *Greg Reely – mastering at Green Jacket Studios *Travis Smith – art consultant *Per Johansson – artwork, layout design *Omer "Impson" R. Cordell – photography References Category:2005 albums